Heinrich Hertz

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (German: [hɛɐʦ]; 22 February 1857 – 1 January 1894) was a German physicist who first conclusively proved the existence of electromagnetic waves theorized by James Clerk Maxwell's electromagnetic theory of light. Hertz proved the theory by engineering instruments to transmit and receive radio pulses using experimental procedures that ruled out all other known wireless phenomena. The unit of frequency – cycle per second – was named the "hertz" in his honor.

Biography

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was born in 1857 in Hamburg, then a sovereign state of the German Confederation, into a prosperous and cultured Hanseatic family. His father Gustav Ferdinand Hertz (originally named David Gustav Hertz) (1827–1914) was a barrister and later a senator. His mother was Anna Elisabeth Pfefferkorn.

Hertz's paternal grandfather, Heinrich David Hertz (originally named Hertz Hertz) (1797–1862), was a businessman, and his paternal grandmother, Bertha "Betty" Oppenheim, was the daughter of the banker Salomon Oppenheim, Jr. from Cologne.

Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope

The Submillimeter Telescope (SMT), formerly known as the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope, is a submillimeter wavelength radio telescope located on Mount Graham, Arizona. It is a 10-meter-wide parabolic dish inside a building to protect it from bad weather. The building front doors and roof are opened when the telescope is in use. The telescope's construction was finished in 1993. Along with the 12 Meter Telescope on Kitt Peak, this telescope is maintained by the Arizona Radio Observatory, a division of Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona.

The dryness of the air around and above Mt. Graham is particularly vital for EHF (extremely short wavelength radio) and far-infrared observations - a region of the spectrum where the electromagnetic waves are strongly attenuated by any water vapor or clouds in the air.

This telescope is used nine-to-ten months of the year, and it is stowed only when there is too much water vapor in the atmosphere, primarily during the summertime. This telescope is one of the telescopes that makes up Mount Graham International Observatory.